Santa's Digital Helpers
by CrazyNutSquirrel
Summary: Beelzemon has had the concept of Christmas explained to him, but when he takes a short flight on Christmas eve, he gets a much better understanding of where the presents come from. Note: the summary will be changed later.


"Why are we getting a tree if you only end up complaining about what it does to the carpet?" asked Impmon, honestly confused.

"Don't digimon have Christmas?" asked Ai.

"What's that?"

"You've never heard of Christmas?" asked Mako in unison with his sister, both of them looking incredulous.

"No. Should I have heard of it?"

"You've never had a Christmas stocking?" asked Mako.

"Look, if you can explain what it is, then I can maybe get it."

"First off, we get a real tree instead of a fake one because these two aren't happy unless we do that. I only complain because the pine needles clog up the vacuum," said their mom. "Christmas is a day where people give each other presents and decorate. Everyone's nice to each other."

"And Santa gives you presents too!"

"Who the heck is Santa?"

"You know the pictures in the windows of the man in the red coat?"

"The fat guy?"

"Santa isn't fat!"

"Whatever you say, Ai."

"He comes down your chimney and puts presents in your stockings or under the trees."

"Why would he want to go through your sock drawer?" Mako sighed.

"We get special stockings for Christmas, like those ones there!" Impmon's eyes followed Mako's finger as he pointed to a shop window they were passing.

"But you only get presents if you're good. Otherwise, you get coal." Impmon grinned.

"I probably got plenty of coal then."

"But you're too good to get coal!"

"Kids, continue explaining and don't argue with him." Ai and Mako pulled out a storybook from their backpack. Flipping through it, Ai found a picture of Santa's workshop.

"See? This is Santa's workshop at the North Pole. He has a bunch of elves who build toys and other things for people all year, and Santa has two magical lists that tell him who's been good and who's been bad." Mako turned the page and pointed to some reindeer.

"And these reindeer pull his magic sleigh across the sky!"

"Where does he deliver to?"

"Everywhere."

"But how can he deliver to everywhere when he's only got one day to do it?"

"His sleigh is magic silly, it means it's really fast!"

"But if he has to go down chimneys, that would take awhile too. And some places don't have chimneys, how does he get in there?"

"The parents give him copies of their house keys," said the twin's mom.

"Sounds like a very sneaky burglar to me," said Impmon. The twins protested as their dad laughed.

"So far, nothing has actually been stolen through use of the keys," he said. "Come on Impmon, just accept that it's a nice holiday." Impmon shrugged.

"Whatever you say. I still don't get it though."

"We'll have to get one of those for you," said Ai, pointing to a purple stocking in a window.

"Why in the world would I need a stocking?" he asked.

"Because Santa wouldn't have anywhere else to put your stocking presents then, silly!"

Once Impmon had been tangled up in the Christmas lights a few times, they all decided that it was probably best if he remained outside while they decorated. The rest of the block had been decorated for weeks, and he hadn't thought anything of it. They were only actually decorating the tree and house on Christmas eve, which made no sense to him. Why they liked the last minute rush would forever be a mystery. He poked his head inside and informed them he was going to go flying for a little while.

Ai and Mako immediately rushed over with a purple and black striped scarf they'd insisted on getting for him during the summer, and made him put it on. Once it was on and they were satisfied that he wasn't going to conveniently lose it during his little trip, he took off into the snowy night. The twins shut the door and went back inside to help finish decorating some cookies with their mom while their dad put the star on the tree in the living room.

Beelzemon's three eyes looked around for anything to interest him during his flight, seeing as all Ai and Mako had been doing recently was watch TV and read Christmas books. All that was on TV was Christmas Christmas Christmas, and he couldn't read anyway, and park goers were scarce, so he had to put up with all the holiday cheer. He heard a sound and his head whipped over to a rooftop. He heard the same sound from there and landed, his boots crunching in the snow. A tiny creature that sort of reminded him of a Lucemon without wings appeared. It was wearing a green version of the outfit Santa had worn in the books the twins had shown him. "Hey, you! Come here." Beelzemon's emerald eyes narrowed slightly.

"Why?"

"Just get over here!" With a sigh, the mega approached.

"What is it, pipsqueak?"

"Santa needs your help!" Beelzemon snorted.

"Santa doesn't exist."

"Says who?" asked a very... jolly voice. Beelzemon turned around and was confronted by a man who was half his height, and very round. The poor buttons on his coat must be fighting a losing battle to keep both sides of the garment attached to each other. "I'm Santa Claus."

"I thought you were supposed to be taller, not a midget." Santa laughed.

"Ah, that wonderful sense of humor," he said cheerfully. "Now, I was wondering if I could have your help."

"With what?" asked Beelzemon.

"Seeing as a couple kids who were especially good this year asked for a few extra things, I can't deliver anything here without falling behind schedule and possibly being seen. With the parents believing I'm actually a myth, this wouldn't be good. So I've enlisted the help of a couple digimon so that the children here can also get what they asked for. Will you help?"

"What do I get out of it?" Santa laughed again.

"You'll be able to tell your Tamers you met Santa. I promise I'll even let you take a picture with me." Beelzemon's eye twitched, then he sighed.

"Fine."

"First, I need you to deliver to your block. Don't worry about your house, it has been taken care of."

"But didn't Ai and Mako ask for things?"

"Yes, but they have repeatedly asked for you, and the digignomes, who are my helpers in the Digital World, already gave them their present early. They won't complain." Santa pulled a sack off his sleigh and handed it to Beelzemon. The mega blinked, not having noticed the reindeer and the sleigh before.

"How did you...?"

"A little camouflage trick I picked up from a digimon. Very helpful fellow. Now, please inhale from this bottle, and you'll know what houses you need to go to to deliver what." Santa held a bottle up to him, and after a couple seconds of hesitation, Beelzemon took it. "Think of something nice or it'll smell nasty," warned old St. Nick. Beelzemon nodded and thought of the twins. The scent he inhaled was, subsequently, chocolate, which was his favorite food. The elf dashed forward from behind the chimney and jumped into the sleigh. "We've gotta go, Santa sir. Otherwise we won't be able to deliver to Fiji." Santa nodded.

"Farewell, Beelzemon. The sack will disappear when it is empty, and you will find your picture with me in your stocking." With that, Santa and his group promptly disappeared. Beelzemon stared at the spot they had occupied, then checked the snow. Sure enough, there were prints that were definitely not his own there.

An address popped into his head and he sighed, hoisting the sack up. "Alright then, time to play Santa," he muttered as he took off in the direction of the house.

As Beelzemon landed at another location at midnight, he heard a very familiar voice mumbling to itself. "I sure hope Takato doesn't get mad at me for entering other people's houses, even to deliver presents." Beelzemon walked over to an open door and looked in to see Guilmon emerging from a living room.

"Pineapple-head?"

"Beelzemon? What are you-?" Guilmon's eyes landed on the sack. "You're helping too? Yip-!" Beelzemon's hand wrapped around Guilmon's muzzle.

"Do you want to wake up the owners of this place? No, didn't think so." Once the door was shut and the lock had definitely clicked, they continued to the next two houses. "When did Santa ask you to help?"

"As soon as Takato fell asleep."

"When was that?"

"Seven," said Guilmon. "He'd eaten too much bread and his mom told him to go to sleep. When did Santa ask you for help?"

"Around six. I went for a short flight and one of his elves caught my attention."

"Santa's really cool, he said he'd fill my stocking with bread, and he told me that my present is bread shaped like all of me! Not just my head!"

"Sweet mother of mercy," muttered Beelzemon as Guilmon continued to ramble. "Those poor people are going to have to figure out how to make a life-sized version of the pineapple-head now..." They parted ways as Guilmon had to head back to the bakery, being done what he had been sent to do, and Beelzemon had to head to some apartments. On the way, he passed Antylamon, who waved as she crouched and reached inside a kid's window to put their presents on their bed. When he reached the apartment area, he found Renamon phasing in and out of apartments.

"Hello Beelzemon. I didn't expect to find you helping out as well." Beelzemon shrugged.

"I didn't have much else to do. I've seen everyone except MarineAngemon, Guardramon, and Terriermon. Have they been out and about too?"

"MarineAngemon has, delivering to the poor people. Guardramon's evolutions are too noisy and wouldn't be able to get in to any place without making a mess so Santa just helped him evolve to Andromon as a present for Kazu. The only form that Terriermon would be able to use to deliver presents would be MegaGargomon, and that can't actually work as a stealthy being, so he was left to snore and mutter about dumplings." Beelzemon snickered.

"Dumplings? He's going to get it for that." Renamon smiled slightly.

"He'll tease you in reply for suddenly believing in Santa's existence."

"What? You won't back me up?"

"No. The parents are best left believing that he isn't real. Combined with digimon, it would be too much for anyone other than children at the moment." Beelzemon shrugged.

"Whatever you say."

When Beelzemon was finally able to get back, he dedigivolved and wearily climbed the stairs to the twins' bedroom. Remaining in mega form, not to mention blast mode, was very taxing when he kept it up for so long. He found a small glass ball on the windowsill where he usually fell asleep. Under it was a note. He read it, and his eyes widened as he looked at the ball again. Exiting the room, he went back outside and digivolved again. He had one more delivery to make.

The next morning, the twins shook him awake roughly, babbling about Christmas presents. Impmon groaned. "What time is it?" he asked, eyes rather bleary.

"Four in the morning," said Mako, looking at his Beelzemon watch.

"We brought your stocking up," said Ai, handing the surprisingly full object to him. Impmon resigned himself to the fact that he had to be up now, and sat on the floor with them, plunging his arm into the stocking. The twins got various digimon cards that would improve Impmon's defense or attack power, along with a couple action figures for Mako and some clothes for Ai's dolls. Impmon found that his stocking was largely full of a couple different plastic toys, the promised photo, and some sweets. He wasn't really against the plastic toys. After all, a plastic toy had transformed into the very powerful Death Slinger.

Next, he followed the twins to their parents room as they jumped up and down on the bed to get their parents up. Downstairs, there were lots of things under the tree, including gifts for Impmon, which really surprised him. Impmon, to his annoyance, found that the ones from the twins' parents were reading programs. From the twins, he found bags of sweets and childish Christmas cards. And from Santa, he found a camera. Attached to it was a note telling him to use it to take pictures of the good times with the twins. If anyone noticed his eyes were a little shiny, they didn't notice as he took a picture of the group. The twins' parents took the camera from him and had him sit with the twins as they took a picture. "Now one more, digivolve and hold the twins outside and we'll take a picture."

When they were enjoying lunch with some of the family's relatives, the doorbell rang. Beelzemon, in his corrupted form, stood and went to answer it. Outside stood Jeri, in her arms was an Elecmon. "Thank you, Beelzemon. I don't know how you did it, but thank you." Beelzemon could see the remnant of happy tears on her cheeks, and Elecmon was smiling at him. Beelzemon shook his head.

"Don't thank me. Someone else arranged for it to happen. I couldn't have done it on my own."

"I don't care. Thank you anyway." Beelzemon shrugged, and was totally unprepared for Jeri to put Elecmon down, then jump up and hug him. He awkwardly patted her back.

"Who's there, Beelzemon?" called the twins' mom.

"A friend," he called. "Did you... uh... want to come in?"

"No thanks. We wanted to know if you and the twins wanted to come over to Rika's place though, we're holding a small Christmas party. Everyone's invited," she said, kindly including the other family members.

"Just a second." Beelzemon went inside to see if anyone else wanted to go, and Elecmon smiled up at Jeri.

"I told you before you had a lion's heart, and I meant it Jeri. A lesser being could not have forgiven him for what he did." Jeri flushed, embarrassed.

"It was what was right. He was sorry. How could I not have forgiven him?" Beelzemon came back and told Jeri that they'd all need a moment to get ready, and that she could come in while she waited. As the door closed, an old man lowered his newspaper. The tiny, childlike being beside him smiled.

"The data extractor ball worked perfectly!" said the smaller one, elated.

"That was very good work. Your fellow Digignomes will be very proud of you." With that, Santa and the digignome turned elf walked off, vanishing into the snow.


End file.
